of Edinburgh^ Session 1865-66. 521 
same subject by Dr E. Eubenson,* containing a series of valuable 
observations made at Eome on the place of maximum polarisation, 
and on the intensity of the maximum polarisation at different 
hours of the day. Important observations on the polarisation of 
the atmosphere have also been made by M. Liais and M. Andres 
Poey, and the value of such observations, in determining the 
height and constitution of our atmosphere, has been universally 
recognised. 
Under this impression, the author was induced to submit to the 
Society the rest of the four years’ observations which he made at 
St Andrews, which, aloug with those already published, all exhibit 
the optical condition of the atmosphere during many days of every 
month of tlie year. 
2. Notices of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves 
in Fife. By Professor J. Y. Simpson. 
The county of Fife abounds in caves or “ weems” — a derivative 
from the G-aelic name for caves — and their existence gives a title to 
the earldom of Wemyss. Some of the caves in Fife are historical, 
as St Eule’s at St Andrews, St Adrian’s near Elie, and St Mar- 
garet’s at Dunfermline. St Serf of Culross, the great patron saint 
of the west of Fife, is described by one of his biographers as having 
usually s]oent the forty days of Lent in a cave named, as such 
retreats often were, the Desertum. This cave at the Desertum — 
(or Dysart, to use the modern form of the name) — was used as a 
church up till near the time of the Deformation. About two miles 
eastward of Dysart, and near the village of Easter Wemyss, there 
is a range of large caves, seven or eight of which are at the pre- 
sent time open ; but several more probably exist, having their 
openings covered over with debris. They stand about 15 or 20 feet 
above the level of high tide. Some of them are 80 to 100 feet in 
length, and of corresponding height and breadth. Two or three of 
them are perfectly dark, and require to be entered with candles. 
Last summer, when on a professional visit to Fife, Dr Simpson 
made a hurried visit to two of these caves, along with Dr Dewar, 
Acts of the Royal Society of Sciences of Upsal. Series iii. tom, v. 
